What changes or developments were made after switching from M390 to 20cv?

XtianAus

XtianAus

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I was lurking old threads & reviews and came across this post from Guy from 2013.

" For the time being, any of my knives the size of the GSO-4.1 and smaller will still be offered in a premium stainless steel. I'll also be releasing a 3 piece kitchen series by late fall, also made from a premium stainless. For the time being that steel is going to be Bohler M-390. For my stainless offerings I want to give you the very best of what I think a stainless steel should have, excellent corrosion resistance and superior wear resistance, with good toughness. With Peter's heat treat at the helm for my heat treating needs, this steel also has some VERY respectable toughness.

For my larger(5"+) blades, any grade of stainless steel lacks the toughness and resilience that I personally expect from a SURVIVE! knife. For that reason I'm only offering CPM-3V in those blades, at least for the time being."

So what i am wondering is, what changes were made that allowed Guy to consider and start using stainless steel in the 5.1 and 6? It seems back then the 4 was the largest size he would allow before toughness would be an issue.
 
I keep hearing that 20cv is the same as m390, but maybe something about 20cv made Guy more comfortable offering that stainless up to the 5.1.

I almost remember there being such a strong customer desire for stainless going into larger sizes that Guy decided to go for it.

Most of this could very well be fabricated from scraps of memories rattling around in my head, but it's all I have right now.
 
I was waiting for Chiral to chime in, but maybe he will see my comments and improve upon them. :)
There are two questions here:
1) Why did Survive switch from M390 to 20CV, and yes, I believe the reason was to use a made in USA material. There was some previous discussion about why he used M390 in the first place and I think that the answer was that there was demand for it so he tried it. He has tried out a couple of other new alloys in production runs with the new spec knives as well.
2) Why did Survive start making bigger knives from 20CV, and I think the answer was yes, there was customer demand. I also think that he did some research and beat on some 20CV and decided that it would hold up to his designs and intended uses after all.
Edit: There were also some adjustments made to the heat treat protocol for 20CV in 2015, but I don't know if this had anything to do with using it in larger knives.
 
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Awesome, thanks guys for that heap of knowledge between you :thumbup:
I think what you said is a testimony and glimpse of Guy's efforts to meet demand without jeopardizing his product. It would make sense that after there was demand for larger sizes in 20cv he went out to test and thump on it to see how it held up. And further developed the HT to ensure durability. Interesting stuff
 
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